Vi Cowden, 93 of Huntington Beach, flies a SIAI Marchetti light fighter plane at Air Combat USA located at the Fullerton Airport. She flew a P-51airplane during WWII, and was the first woman to deliver supplies to the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

Vi Cowden, 93 of Huntington Beach, flies over the Pacific with the Catalina Islands in the background.

Vi Cowden, 93 of Huntington Beach, gets a hug from a fellow 99 Club member Patty Murray, who arranged to have her fly a fighter plane at Air Combat USA Friday. The 99 Club is a women's flying group.

Vi Cowden, 93 of Huntington Beach, poses with Max "Maverick" Blackstone, who was her co-pilot as she flew a SIAI Marchetti light fighter plane at Air Combat USA located at the Fullerton Airport.

Vi Cowden, 93 of Huntington Beach, flew a SIAI Marchetti light fighter plane at Air Combat USA located at the Fullerton Airport on Friday. Here, she was photographed aboard a P-51 plane she flew in WWII after delivering goods to the the famed Tuskegee Airmen.

FULLERTON – As Violet Cowden, 93, of Huntington Beach waited in her flight jumpsuit to hit the Tarmac at Fullerton Airport, she reminisced about flying World War II fighter planes during her time as a Women’s Airforce Service Pilot.

After almost 70 years of the government all but sweeping their service under the rug, the roughly 300 living WASPs are going to receive the highest civilian honor at a Washington, D.C. ceremony this month: The Congressional Gold Medal.

“My assignment was air transport command,” Cowden said. “I picked up planes from the factories and delivered them to the point of debarkation within the continental U.S. where they were used. The reason for the WASP program was to release the men so they could fly in combat.”

That was what made her opportunity a few days ago to get behind the stick of a light attack fighter at Fullerton Airport so exciting. It gave her the chance to get in a mock dogfight with a friend and fellow vet.

Cowden is the matriarch and role model for women in the Orange County chapter of the Ninety-Nines, Inc. an international club for female pilots, say fellow club members. One of them, Denise Jennings, works for Air Combat U.S.A. in Fullerton, which offers people the chance to fly with a trained pilot and perform simulated dogfights.

“I’m excited, and I feel very privileged to get into the air again, because I love being in the air,” Cowden said at the flight briefing. “Ever since I was 7 years old I wanted to fly – I didn’t even know there were airplanes. I just wanted to fly in the air like the birds.”

A HISTORY OF FLYING

Before Cowden joined the WASPs, she taught first grade in South Dakota where she obtained her pilot’s license.

“My students always knew the days I flew,” she recalled. “One boy would raise his hand and say, ‘You flew today!’ ‘How did you know?’ ‘Because you look so happy.’

“I got my private pilot’s license the day the war started,” Cowden said. “I sent a wire to Washington D.C., and I told them I had my pilot’s license, and I’d be happy to serve.”

She was involved in some historic missions. The P-51s she delivered to military air fields are widely credited with helping win the war – they had enough fuel capacity to guard big, vulnerable bombers during entire missions. Earlier models had to leave bombers unguarded while returning to refuel.

“I always say I won the war,” Cowden joked.

“The P-51 really turned the tide of the war,” said Air Combat U.S.A. pilot Jim Neubauer, who was briefing Cowden in preparation for her flight Friday.

Cowden also delivered the first P-51 to the Tuskegee Airmen, the first black military pilots in World War II.

She got a job in industrial ceramics in Southgate after the war and moved to Huntington Beach in 1972 because of the good schools there.

IGNORING WOMEN’S SERVICE

Unfortunately her work wasn’t always recognized for the important service that it was, Cowden said.

“I landed an AT-6 in Kansas City,” she said. “The commanding officer at the field heard that a woman had flown it in, and wouldn’t accept it. I just ignored it. That’s all you can do.”

According to a January article in the Stars and Stripes military newspaper, WASPs were not paid as much as male pilots. They were denied even veteran status until 1977, as well as military benefits.

Some 25,000 women signed up, but only 1,074 completed the training. Thirty-eight WASPs died in service, the Stars and Stripes article states.

Cowden said 80 percent of all the stateside flying during the years the WASP program was active was carried out by women.

Cowden said that she was proud to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, but the victory was bittersweet.

“It just seems like it should have been done a long time ago,” Cowden said. “There are so few of us left. It’s the only thing that makes me a little bit sad, because they should have been here, too. Because they did just as much as the ones who are still alive.”

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